TY - JOUR

T1 - Plural valuation in space: mapping values of grasslands and their ecosystem services

AU - Schmitt, Thomas M.

AU - Riebl, Rebekka

AU - Martín-López, Berta

AU - Hänsel, Maria

AU - Koellner, Thomas

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [031B0027C, 031B0516C]. Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) [491183248]. Funded by the Open Access Publishing Fond of the University of Bayreuth. This work was supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) funding the SUSALPS project (Sustainable use of alpine and pre-alpine grassland soils in a changing climate) [grant numbers 031B0027C and 031B0516C]. The project is part of the funding measure ‘Soil as a sustainable resource for the bioeconomy’ (BonaRes). The publication of this work was funded by the University of Bayreuth in the funding programme Open Access Publishing. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

PY - 2022/5/12

Y1 - 2022/5/12

N2 - The agricultural management of grasslands not only is strongly linked to fodder production but also provides other valuable ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, nutrient regulation, and recreation. Capturing the values that society places on such ecosystem services is a step to provide management recommendations. To elicit the societal value of grasslands and their ecosystem services, it is important to consider multiple dimensions, namely, instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values. We conducted surveys with citizens in 2018 and 2020 in two study areas in Bavaria, Germany: one grassland-dominated and one with mixed agricultural land use. In the surveys, the respondents were invited to map up to seven points in their respective regions where they perceived grasslands to be ‘especially valuable’. Also, the respondents could provide reasons for this selection. These verbatims were classified into instrumental, intrinsic, and several sub-types of relational values using Qualitative Content Analysis. Next, we conducted a hotspot analysis that revealed spatial hotspots and coldspots for each value type. Besides some overlaps, we found that hotspots of instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values varied in space. A Constrained Correspondence Analysis underlined the trade-offs between instrumentally valued grasslands that are perceived as suitable to supply provisioning services and intrinsically valued grasslands that are closely related to relational values such as care. The results show that grasslands and their ecosystem services are valued for a variety of reasons on different locations, and point out the need for further investigations of the spatial distribution of values associated with ecosystem services.

AB - The agricultural management of grasslands not only is strongly linked to fodder production but also provides other valuable ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, nutrient regulation, and recreation. Capturing the values that society places on such ecosystem services is a step to provide management recommendations. To elicit the societal value of grasslands and their ecosystem services, it is important to consider multiple dimensions, namely, instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values. We conducted surveys with citizens in 2018 and 2020 in two study areas in Bavaria, Germany: one grassland-dominated and one with mixed agricultural land use. In the surveys, the respondents were invited to map up to seven points in their respective regions where they perceived grasslands to be ‘especially valuable’. Also, the respondents could provide reasons for this selection. These verbatims were classified into instrumental, intrinsic, and several sub-types of relational values using Qualitative Content Analysis. Next, we conducted a hotspot analysis that revealed spatial hotspots and coldspots for each value type. Besides some overlaps, we found that hotspots of instrumental, intrinsic, and relational values varied in space. A Constrained Correspondence Analysis underlined the trade-offs between instrumentally valued grasslands that are perceived as suitable to supply provisioning services and intrinsically valued grasslands that are closely related to relational values such as care. The results show that grasslands and their ecosystem services are valued for a variety of reasons on different locations, and point out the need for further investigations of the spatial distribution of values associated with ecosystem services.

KW - Ecosystems Research

KW - Grasslands

KW - hotspots

KW - sociocultural valuation

KW - relational values

KW - spatial valuation

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/9fa6896a-5a27-3cb4-a02e-3aa6ebed4b77/

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85130236289&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/26395916.2022.2065361

DO - 10.1080/26395916.2022.2065361

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 18

SP - 258

EP - 274

JO - Ecosystems and People

JF - Ecosystems and People

SN - 2639-5908

IS - 1

ER -